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The Poynter Center

The Poynter Center

Studying ethical issues in American public life

The Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions is dedicated to exploring intersections between ethics, media, and public institutions. The center's interdisciplinary approach to research, teaching, and critical inquiry fosters collaboration among faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students in Indiana University's College of Arts and Sciences and professional schools, as well as with members of the wider community.

The Poynter Center is an academic center in IU's Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty & Academic Affairs.

History

In the wake of the Watergate scandal, Nelson Poynter—an IU alumnus and chairman of the board of the Times Publishing Company—provided funding for a project exploring the declining trust in public institutions.

Five years later, Poynter presented Indiana University with a second gift, which endowed the project as The Poynter Center for American Institutions and established it in perpetuity.

In 1982, the center's name was changed to The Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions. The name change reflected the center's expanded mission, which included ethics of the professions.

Nelson Poynter and IU President Herman B Wells worked on the *Indiana Daily Student* together in the early 1920s.

We have learned that as an industry, we are backward in research, and that we are not seizing the new technologies and discoveries of recent years... we must improve and expand—or we will dwindle and die.
Nelson Poynter

Leadership

The Poynter Center board is the intellectual backbone of the institute, ensuring the intellectual coherence of the center’s activities and initiatives. The board also serves as the nominating committee for the Poynter Chair.

Board members

Elaine Monaghan, Media School
Matthew Baggetta, School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Suzanne Eckes, School of Education
Tom French, Media School
Todd Haugh, Kelley School of Business
Stephanie Li, Dept. of English
Stephen Macekura, School of Global and International Studies
Eden Medina, School of Informatics and Computing
Radhika Parameswaran, Media School
Sandy Shapshay, Dept. of Philosophy

Indermohan Virk
Executive director

Elaine Monaghan
Board chair

Poynter Chair

Roger Cohen is the inaugural Indiana University Poynter Chair. Cohen is an award-winning author and Pulitzer Prize-nominated columnist on international affairs and diplomacy for The New York Times and The International New York Times. His columns appear every Tuesday and Friday.

Inaugural lecture
On Oct. 6, Cohen presented "False equivalence: Is media balance a trap in an atypical election?" View the archive stream

About the chair
Each year, one or two new public intellectuals will be asked to serve in this role, visiting the Bloomington campus throughout the year for public lectures, seminars, and discussions.